


Feelings.

by stranger_thanfiction



Series: Stranger Things 30 Day Challenge [12]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: But that's why I love him, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Post-Season/Series 03, basically he's ron weasley, my boy mike just really loves el
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 15:09:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20010334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stranger_thanfiction/pseuds/stranger_thanfiction
Summary: Michael Wheeler is an emotional person. He feels all of the feelings, about everything, all the time.He just can't express it without sounding like a jackass.





	Feelings.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay wow, so not only is this two days late, but I didn't really follow the prompt, which was Most Underrated Character.   
> (It's also 3 am, I'm working night shift, and I've been up for 24+ hours so bear with this nonsense y'all)  
> Mike is definitely not underrated, but he's been experiencing hate in the fandom since S3 dropped, and it seems like no one really paid attention at all to his character this season.  
> Mileven throughout the season isn't the pinnacle of a healthy relationship--they're scarily codependent and deeply in love at such a young age that it's worrying, which is why introducing Max/El's friendship and the boys being dudes was a great addition to the season. It caused all of us shippers angst, but they both needed to form identities for themselves outside of being a couple.  
> (Everyone has that gross couple online, who never stops posting about each other? Yeah they were that at the beginning of S3. At the end, they're more like that couple that will tag each other in memes and occassionally share a photo or two on insta--just only barely nauseating.)  
> As always, comments and kudos work better than coffee as writing fuel. The next 3 days are all about favorite outfits, so check out my tumblr to see my shitty artwork @modernfeminismtalking. Enjoy!

Michael Wheeler is an emotional person. He feels all of the feelings, about everything, all the time.

He just can't express it without sounding like a jackass. 

He learned early on that his mom and dad were not happy together. 

Dustin’s dad passed away before he moved to Hawkins, but Mike knows his mom keeps little things to remember Mr. Henderson by. Apparently, his dad named Mews. 

The Sinclairs, his next door neighbors, went on weekly date nights that meant Lucas and Erica staying overnight. While Mike didn’t mind, the extra time meaning more time to play and plan campaigns, Lucas always gagged when his parents held hands as he was picked up.

Mike didn’t understand why, because his mom and dad didn’t even look at each other some days, let alone hold hands or kiss. 

Will’s parents similarly didn’t get along, but in a much more serious way. Will’s dad was mean, and Will ended up staying over when the fights got really bad. 

Mike sometimes wishes his parents’ fighting was like that, explosive and external instead passive aggressive and subtle. He feels nearly jealous at the expression of feelings until Mrs. Byers comes to pick Will up one day with a large welt across her cheek; Mike’s stomach drops, and he realizes that maybe showing your feelings isn’t the best. 

He shouldn’t say his parents never were affectionate; Karen Wheeler loved her three children more than life itself, but often didn't let them know. Ted oftentimes forgot they were there. 

His dad is a great example of what he doesn’t want to happen when he grows up. 

So, yeah, Mike doesn’t really have the best examples for showing love. 

He knows love. Dustin, Will, and Lucas are his best friends. Mike would do anything for them, and he knows it’s reciprocal. It’s unspoken, but The Party is bonded for life. 

Even Max, who sometimes makes him want to tear his hair out, has a place in his heart, as small as it can be. 

More than anyone else in the world, he loves El. 

He loves El Hopper so much that he can’t think, he can’t breathe, he can’t function without her, and the depth of that scares him and most of the adults around him.

The Chief, especially, doesn’t get it, he thinks that his and El’s relationship is something temporary. Hopper doesn’t know that Mike dreams of the day that the horrors of their lives are behind them, so he can finally just have a normal life with her. 

(Also, Mike’s still not over him separating the couple for nearly a year, so he likes to get on the older man’s nerves. Had he known it would’ve lead to death threats and a breakup, Mike wouldn’t have pushed as hard.)

El’s his endgame; he’s fourteen, and he’s confident that he’s never going to love anyone else the way he loves her. 

She’s the most important thing to him.

Which is why the group’s plan right now scares the shit out of him.

Max is accusing him of being controlling and isolating, but he doesn't know how to tell her he's not trying to be. 

Mike has lost her twice in under two years, and that’s two times too many for his liking. 

He doesn’t even know what they are right now, but the plan of sending her into Billy’s mind has him in a frenzy.

El is strong, but they all have no idea what’s out there, so he can’t help but be a little overprotective. 

“So can we please come up with another plan, because I love her and I can’t lose her again!” he yells, exhausted and anxious at the idea of sending his girlfriend--ex-girlfriend?--into danger. 

She walks in, and his stomach drops. 

Mike desperately wants to pull her from everyone and confess it right there and then, to make her understand that he never wanted to control her because he knows he can’t, that he loves her so much that he thinks he’ll die if something else happens to her, but he doesn’t.

Instead, he holds her hand as she delves into the mind of an interdimensional world destroyer and prays to whoever is out that she’ll come out okay.

Mike should stop praying, because she comes out of her trance screaming and clutching at him. 

The Mindflayer finds them, and grabs her, and Mike is filled with adrenaline but it’s not enough.

He’s going to lose her again, he’s sure of it this time, even with everyone holding onto her the Mindflayer is too strong. 

Mike’s mind begins to shut down, preparing for the grief but still using his muscles to pull with all his strength, when Lucas with an ax comes out of nowhere and cuts off the thing’s arm. 

Mike could kiss him. 

They all collapse, exhausted, until they realize El’s injured, and they need to get her away, now. 

The group ends up at the Big Buy and disperses to get supplies for El. 

Mike is the dutiful boyfriend--ex?--and compresses the wound so she doesn’t bleed out. 

He can’t help but just watch her. El’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen; hotter than Phoebe Cates. Her bright eyes are wrung with exhaustion, and her forehead’s still sweaty from the exertion of getting here, but she’s so gorgeous that his breath catches in his throat. 

She catches him staring, and she raises an eyebrow. El doesn’t seem mad at him anymore, but he’s nervous anyway.

Mike talks about her going to have a cool scar, and they joke before he fumbles around an apology. 

The more he talks, the worse it gets, because  _ why can’t he just say it _ , but El gently brushes his cheek with her hand.

“Mike, are you okay?”

He really doesn’t deserve her, because here she is bleeding out, bruised after saving them all, and she’s making sure he’s okay because he’s having a panic attack just trying to say--

The radio crackles. 

Holy shit, it’s Dustin, and he quickly moves her hand to press on the wound before sliding over to the radio. 

It’s over. 

Mike’s numb, he’s pretty sure he’s concussed, but he refuses to let go of Eleven as she’s being checked on by the paramedics.

Owens already promised him that she’s safe, and they can’t do anything to her, but Hopper’s words echo in the back of his mind. 

Mike still feels the need to protect her. 

She’s been tucked into his side since it stopped, since they stumbled out of the burning mall, and he’s not letting her go anytime soon.

If El has any more brushes with death, he’s going to have a heart attack before they reach their twenties. 

She’s tired, but her knee is jittering, butting against his, and he knows she’s waiting to see Hopper.

He doesn’t know how much time has passed before Joyce comes stumbling through the sea of paramedics, guards, and first responders.

Mike feels El perk up, using him to stand and hobble out towards the center of the chaos so she can find the large man better.

Mike’s looking, too, because he has a lot he needs to say to the man, beginning with an apology. 

It’s not until Joyce begins to sob into Will’s neck that he gets it.

Oh.

Oh no. 

Mike rushes to El and gets there in the nick of time; she collapses into sobs in his arms, snaking hers around his shoulders and burying her face into his neck.

He’s trying to stay strong for her, but he feels himself tearing up as well. 

_ I’m so, so sorry _ , he thinks. 

It’s been three months since that night, three months since the funeral, and one month since Joyce sat all the kids down to tell them that she’d purchased a home and that the Byers were moving. 

That was a sleepover night, but Mike and El didn’t sleep a wink. They huddled together in El’s makeshift room, and he held her as she cried over everything. 

Mike wished that he could take away all her pain and bring back everything that’s been taken from her. 

He wished that Hopper never volunteered to go down into the labs in the first place, because then none of them would be crying. 

Mostly, he wished that she wasn’t moving away, but he understood why. 

Today was the day, and Mike was trying to be upbeat for her sake. 

This isn’t going to be like last time. This time, she’s got a walkie, and Will and Dustin made up plans for Cerebro 2.0, and if need be, Mrs. Byers already told them she’s planning to put phones in all the rooms. 

They’re going to be separated again, but this time it’s not indefinite.

Mike and Nancy are already planning on going up for Thanksgiving, although Mike thinks there might be surprise trips in the interim, and he’s been planting hints in Mrs. Byers’ ear about them coming down for Christmas. 

He tells El this and ends up rambling again. 

El is perfect.

She listens to him make a fool out of himself and then makes him feel better by saying she likes presents too.

He loves her so much, and this is probably the last chance he’ll have for a while that he could do it, so he just needs to tell her. 

Surprise, she beats him to it. 

“Mike,” she says softly, cupping her cheek with her hand, “I love you, too.”

Then El kisses him, and if he could spend the rest of his life kissing her, he would.

He tried earlier in the summer.

She pulls away, and his brain takes until she’s out of the room to reboot. 

She loves him.

_ She loves him. _

El Hopper, the most perfect girl in the entire world, loves him. 

Mike, for once, uses his long limbs for good, and races to catch her. 

He grabs her elbow, and she turns, a confused look on her face.

“Mike, what are you--”

Before she can finish that sentence, they’re kissing once again, because she loves him and he loves her and it’ll be a little while until they can do this again so he might as well take advantage of it. 

He pulls away first to find a dazed smile on her lips, and blurts it before he can lose the courage.

“I love you!”

El’s eyes soften, and she kisses him on the cheek before turning to find Joyce.

“I know. I’ll meet you outside?”

Mike nods after her, a goofy smile on his face.

“Sure,” he starts, and pauses after a second, “wait a minute, did you just Han Solo me?”

Mike Wheeler may be terrible at communicating his feelings, but at least his girlfriend isn’t.


End file.
